CLEVELAND, Ohio (92.3 The Fan) – The 2020 season hasn’t gone how Jarvis Landry had hoped.
Landry is still recovering from offseason hip surgery and is playing through a broken rib suffered in Week 5 against the Colts Oct. 11.
Last week’s 8 catch, 143 yard and a touchdown performance in a 27-25 win over the Jaguars a day after his 28th birthday was just what the doctor ordered for the five-time Pro Bowler.
“It is huge. I feel like I am in a sense just getting started so I am excited,” Landry said. “I hope with that more opportunities come. It challenges me obviously to continue to work hard, to continue to get my hands on the ball in practice and to continue to earn the trust of the coaches that have to be able to call these plays and put me in these type of situations for this team to make those type of plays. That is something that I am excited about and looking forward to.”
In recent weeks, head coach Kevin Stefanski has dialed back the volume of Landry’s offensive reps and it might be paying off.
All of Landry’s catches against Jacksonville moved the chains or put points on the board as he set season-highs for catches and yards in the win, the eighth of the season for the Browns.
Several of the catches were contested, with a defender hanging all over him yet Landry came away with the football.
“I think that day was just because it was my birthday,” Landry joked. “We have not really had an opportunity to throw the ball in the prior weeks to our Jacksonville game. We wanted to come out and kind of make a statement in the air. Baker is just trusting me and giving me opportunities, regardless of who is around or who he is throwing the ball to.
“I have to make these plays for this team. In tough situations, a guy on my back or whatever it is, I have to make those type of plays, and that is what I want to continue to do.”
Landry entered the season averaging 1,133.6 yards per year but through 13 games has 614 yards. The fewest touchdowns he’s scored in a season is four – done three times.
Unfortunately, it took until Week 12 to get into the endzone, but Landry is finally on the board and he’s expecting more will come as the team makes a December playoff push.
“It is a great feeling. It has you itching, literally itching, to want more,” Landry said. “We know that we have to take it one game at a time. Not that our position is set in stone but we still have to go out here and win games and play good football. I think we understand that. I understand that. We have just been working and putting in the work each and every day.”
Fired Up – Last year it was receivers Jarvis Landry and Odell Beckham Jr. served as the Browns primary dynamic duo, crossing the 1,000-yard threshold – a first in franchise history for a pair of receivers in the same season.
This year the hope is it’ll be Nick Chubb and Kareem Hunt that’ll hit 1,000 to become the first duo out of the backfield to do it for the Browns since Kevin Mack and Earnest Byner in 1985.
“That is going to happen,” running backs coach Stum Mitchell said Friday. “I knew that was going to happen before the season started. That was our goal. That is going to happen. It is just a matter of what game it is going to happen.”
Chubb is sitting on 719 yards in seven games, ranked tied for fifth in the NFL while Hunt is close behind in eighth place with 706 yards.
“Both of those guys are starting running backs,” Mitchell said. “Coach Stefanski knows exactly what he wants done. He knows how many carries he wants each of those guys to have. They know when they are tired, and they will raise their hand and go in. It is just a matter of keeping track of the number of carries each one of those guys has.”
Activated – The Browns activated linebacker Sione Takitaki and defensive end Joe Jackson from the reserve/COVID-19 list Friday.
Stefanski expects that Takitaki will play and be able to contribute Sunday.
Getting Thin – With receivers KhaDarel Hodge and Taywan Taylor ruled out for Sunday, Stefanski expects the team will elevate a receiver from the practice squad, possibly Ja’Marcus Bradley.
Rookie Donovan Peoples-Jones, who has been replaced as kick returner by D’Ernest Johnson, will likely see his offensive role expanded a bit behind Landry and Rashard Higgins.
Injury Report – OUT: CB Denzel Ward (calf), WR KhaDarel Hodge (hamstring), WR Taywan Taylor (neck); QUESTIONABLE: C Nick Harris (ankle), DT Vincent Taylor (knee); EXPECTED TO PLAY: OT Jack Conklin knee), DT Jordan Elliott (knee), RB Kareem Hunt (thigh), S Sheldrick Redwine (knee), RG Wyatt Teller (calf), C JC Tretter (knee), WR Jarvis Landry (hip)
